So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

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More information about this quote

Topic

Effects of the past The past The human condition

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Source

The Great Gatsby

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Closing lines Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1925 1920s 20th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925, ch. 9.

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A quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald about effects of the past: “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald

One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender is the Night

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More information about this quote
Topic
Emotional scars

Author

F. Scott Fitzgerald
Source
Tender is the Night
Medium
Novel
Language
English
Time
1934 1930s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. "Tender is the Night." Scribner's Magazine, Jan. 1934 - Apr. 1934.

Current Citation

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. Scribners, 1995, ch. 14.

Another quote from the 1920s

I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how
beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes

I, Too

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More information about this quote
Topic
Black experience Race relations America

Author

Langston Hughes
Source
I, Too
Medium
Poem
Statement Type
Prophecies and predictions
Language
English
Time
1926 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Hughes, Langston. "I, Too." The Weary Blues. Alfred A. Knopf, 1926, I. 1.

Current Citation

Hughes, Langston. The Weary Blues. Alfred A. Knopf, 2015, epilogue.

Another quote about The human condition

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is stuck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.

William Hazlitt

More information about this quote
Topic
Laughter Crying The human condition

Author

William Hazlitt
Language
English
Time
1818 1810s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Hazlitt, William. "On Wit and Humour." Lectures on the English Comic Writers. c. 1818, Surrey Institution, London, England, UK.

Another quote of the following type Metaphor, analogy and simile

Life always gets harder toward the summit-the cold increases, responsibility increases.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The Antichrist

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More information about this quote
Topic
Achieving great things Adversity

Author

Friedrich Nietzsche
Source
The Antichrist
Genre
Philosophical literature
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
German
Time
1895 1890s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. Der Antichrist [The Antichrist]. 1895, no. 57.

Current Citation

Nietzsche, Friedrich. "The Anti-Christ." The Twilight of the Idols and Anti-Christ, translated by R. J. Hollingdale. Penguin Classics, 1990, no. 57.